To Hell With It!

Do you like being told what to do? Being told “this is how it’s done and there’s no two ways about it”?

I would hope most of you said no, as those who said yes are probably just parasitically meandering around the internether trying to find the easy way out, to have people tell them what to think. People that said yes are the type of people that make opinions which are the exact same as the person they just meandered to.

A long time ago, I had the same problem. From one source of information to the next, my opinions and stances changed like a breeze. Oh this guy said that the world sucks? I agree! It blows! Oh wait, this guy says it’s great and awesome and pretty! I agree! Look at that tree, it’s pristine!

Fact of the matter is, I’ve grown tired of being a sheep. Other opinions matter, but only to the point where they make sense. I’ve made it an obsession to look at everything I’ve read, and really, really think about it. How do I know Y is what will happen if X happens? Because this guy said so? Heck no, I think not. Even credible sources are up for my scrutiny! If I can check something personally, I will. If something is said not to work, I try every possible way to make it work.

For example, Beast Mastery is sub par. Maybe it is, but I’m still playing it: and guess what. I’m topping meters. I can actually do very well with it! People said not to gem Intellect, and I thought to test otherwise. For me, it works! Gemming intellect as a Beastmaster actually works well enough since it keeps you out of Aspect of the Viper and it helps get you out of it faster; but are you listening to me? Are you going to gem intellect all of a sudden? Heck no you’re not! You’re all smart and have your own opinions on the matter.

In fact, I fully expect you to all blow about 150 gold trying this out, considering it, and then doing as you please.

Why do I expect you to do this? Because you’re not sheep. I’m hardly a shepherd, and I don’t intend to be one. To become a shepherd would entail becoming the delicious host of several thousand mindless parasites that want to do something or other called DPS.

I want to be a helper, not a teller. Tellers feed you information like a mother feeds her newborn child: with a really big, scary spoon which the woman in charge of feeding seems to think is an aeroplane. Helpers are the people who put the food in front of the baby, and hide behind the nearest shelving unit in an attempt to minimize stains.

I don’t like force feeding. It’s a strenuous exercise in telling everybody how to do things piece by piece until they do it exactly the way you do it, which then means you’ve made a clone. You don’t get the credit for it though, seeing as no one can tell the difference between the two of you, and then you get fired and put into a hole deep underground.

More accurately, force feeding information is like going to the gym to work out only to have a big, sweaty ugly man come up behind you and take you hostage, then do a bunch of incredibly stupid stuff and then have all of the consequences land on your incredibly annoyed and now soiled lap.

Helping people is a lot easier, and a lot more rewarding. Instead of being jumped by a 7 foot tall giant, being helped by a helper is like going to the gym with a really good friend, having a nice jog, and then jumping up and down with glee as you’ve managed to lose 10 pounds in one sitting before collapsing in an unrecognizable, but happy, heap.

As such, I think it’s important to make your own opinions instead of acting like a neanderthal.

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14 responses to “To Hell With It!”

*claps*
I whole-heartedly agree with you on telling and sharing and generally looking at something from more than one said and more than one person’s words. Hear hear!
And gem intllect you say? That’s interesting and I’d like to know more results on that, especially if you have the careful aim talent (Hope to god you would…) because if the conversion is a 1:1 for 1 int. point being 1 ap point,WHY THE HECK NOT? I may try that out myself. Interesting.

I know I said something in my own blog about the Catlike reflexes talent getting a bit of a face-lift; and you promptly left a comment about it/etc….I think it that it still might be worthwhile to take if the dmg increase is enough….dunno, going to have to test that one when I get the chance.

So….you said to ask about what *you* think….so I want to know, what do you think about the changes to traps? Good? Bad? Horrid? So-So? ^_-

About Traps
The new trap changes are as follows: first, you can now lay down 1 trap from every school(i.e, fire traps, ice traps, nature trap/snake trap) at a time.

This change ROCKS. I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard BRK say “Don’t you wish we could make a minefield?” or the number of times where I’ve heard Pike say “I try to use Frost trap to kite but then… I used Black Arrow instead. Oops.”

Being able to lay down up to 3 traps has solidified the hunter as a defender in Battlegrounds. Being able to defend a node will never be easier than this if this change goes through.

This change is balanced by another: traps can only exist for 30 seconds, as opposed to the minute they last now. This has a very, very bad side effect: chain trapping is now very difficult, if not impossible to perform as a form of CC. This has PvErs in an uproar, as good hunters have prided themselves on good chain trapping skills since vanilla WoW. Having this taken away seems like another instance where PvP balance affects PvE viability.

In some instances, however, these changes can only be good. If anyone of you has done Gluth kiting, you all know how many zombies seems to come out of the woodwork. With Explosive trap and frost trap now usable at the same time, your job is a lot easier!

Nonetheless, the death of chain trapping is nigh. What’s very sad is the fact that we haven’t had a lot of opportunity to use this skill in WotLK yet, and we won’t be able to once this change goes through unless you’re survival.

Which I suppose gives them another niche. Which is nice, I suppose, but I’d really like a niche for the other two trees.

Being able to write a blog about being a huntard, doesnt’t make you any less of a huntard. Just ask Lassira.

Now if you want to be a Hunter. You should first understand the world of warcraft operates under a series of mathematical rules. Until the day pigs are able to defy the rules of the universe and actually take off and fly, following the rules of mathematics will be the way to succeed at any class in WoW.

Yes, WoW is based on Math. Any game is. Even your everyday FPS is based on math, your life is based on math, and your very being is based on math. Does that make it any less free? We are bound by rules we all wish to break, and we have! Humans can fly thanks to airplanes, we can keep a human alive for longer than was originally possible…

Understanding the rules of a game allows us to break them and bend them to our will. We test our boundaries in the hopes of breaking them on a daily basis. It’s how we evolved, actually.

Bringing this to WoW and blogging, I’m going to assume that when you refer to math that you are talking about DPS and the set rules of min maxing: more damage, at any cost. The problem with this is the following: it doesn’t take into account the player, his boundaries, and his limitations. It is mathematically guaranteed that I should be doing less DPS than a MM or Survival hunter; but the fact is I’m not always on the bottom rung.

I do top meters. I do very well for myself, and no one complains about the DPS I bring to a raid. How do you mathematically explain that?

Here’s a tip: you can’t. Unlike what some people think(Gevlon, for instance), people are not actually mathematically predictable. We’re mathematically made, but what we do and what happens to us and how it affects us defies all the rules of mathematics.

Just because the guy is mathematically doing better doesn’t mean he will, Wat. I’ve proven this countless times, and I think I’ve made a point of showing people it’s about people, not numbers.

TLDR: WoW is math based, but the game is about people. People are not math, therefore WoW isn’t all math.

I busted a gut when I read Wut?’s comment as I face palmed at him to extreme measures XD.

But in more serious business, the separate cool downs for traps are pretty cool IMO. Yah yah, double trapping and all that stuff gets harder but, really? Now I can fly around on my widdle hunty and have more traps out while I run like an idiot!? Kick ass, and our team gets more delicious traps? Kick ass!

I pretty much want to drop the frost trap, explosive trap, and snake trap on top of each other and watch the hilarity ensue. Well if someone runs over them in the 24 seconds they all co-exist. I’m a bummed about the short duration. Boo.

I agree completely I’ve raided as a Beast Master for ever, and really enjoyed it. I recently tried Marksman to see how it played, and hated it. I missed my spirit beast and was happy beyond belief to have her out again. I’m usually top 5 for DPS, so I have to be doing something right. I think the changes to pet scaling are a great start, and hope that Blizz ends up having more stats scale either with this patch or a future patch.